I am a man.

I am a gay man.

I am a gay clergy man past the age that, were I a woman, I would likely become pregnant (particularly for the first time).

I put myself in that context because I will never be put in the position of being a woman facing an unwanted, unplanned, unhealthy, inconvenient and/or frightening pregnancy. Nor have I been nor will I be the man who helped place a woman in that position. (I will also never know the expectant joy of knowing that a child I want, hope and/or dream for will be born to me or my beloved. No one ever said life was fair.)

With that context in place, let me humbly state that I believe abortion is a tragedy. I do not believe that it is murder, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that makes God the murderer in millions of fertilizations that, for various "natural" causes, do not lead to the birth of a child. Nevertheless, abortion is a tragedy...for all concerned. That being said, no tragedy is beyond God's redemption and, though I do not know how God might redeem such tragedies, I know that our Divine Mother Hen can...and will.

I read the stories of my friends' lives...of the difficult decisions many have made to terminate and/or to continue pregnancies, and I am deeply moved...and deeply conflicted. I will not, indeed I cannot with good conscience, judge any of them for the decisions they have made.

But ultimately, it comes to this. I know that the heart of my opinions and beliefs on life and abortion and sex education and any number of related topics is a particular faith-based concept of life. Our nation and its laws were not, are not, and cannot ever be based upon my (or anyone else's) particular views on a topic that are so inherently theological as to be incapable of expression without reference to religious thought and/or belief. That is the very nature of the free society our Constitution promises us.

Objectively examining the termination of a pregnancy short of the time period of the independent viability of the unborn, I must acknowledge that this is a medical procedure, the end result of a consultative relationship between a physician and a patient. Their decision may have grave moral, psychological, and economic consequences, but those consequences are not the jurisdiction of the law, not in a free society. We may not enslave women to parenthood simply because fertilization has taken place.

Roe v. Wade was a poorly decided case because it lacks logic and sound legal reasoning in a number of instances...that does NOT mean that the ultimate decision reached was erroneous. Indeed, I believe that the decision reached was correct.

I pray for the day when, through: education, empowerment of young women, maturation of the male of the species, and ready access to protection, abortion is no longer necessary. To that end, I will continue to argue for the creation and expansion of programs that will make abortion obsolete. Until that day, I will continue to argue for access to safe, legal medical services--of all kinds--for women who become pregnant, including those services that might lead to the termination of that pregnancy and those that would assist women who decide to pursue adoption or keep and raise a child.